Nationals with high asylum grant rates by the United Kingdom will be subject to new visa restrictions.
The new changes have been introduced in a bid to deal with high migration rates, and among those affected will be nationals of Pakistan, Nigeria, and Sri Lanka, VisaGuide.World reports.
The government of the UK plans to introduce such restrictions on visa applications from nationals of countries that are most likely to overstay their visas and also seek asylum in the Kingdom, a government official told InfoMigrants.
The Home Office will unveil a plan next week in an “Immigration White Paper” that will mention the strategies to reduce the net migration in the UK, which in the year to June 2024 marked a new record of 728,000.
Tightened Measures to Prevent Immigration System Abuses
The statistics from the government of the UK revealed that of the total 108,000 people who applied for asylum in the United Kingdom last year, a total of 16,000 reached the territory on student visas.
A spokesperson for the Home Office told InfoMigrants that the recent changes have been made in a bid to prevent abuse of the immigration system.
To tackle abuse by foreign nationals who arrive on work and study visas and go on to claim asylum, we are building intelligence on the profile of these individuals to identify them earlier and faster.
The same said that the UK is keeping the visa system under constant review, and where the authorities detect trends that may undermine the UK’s immigration rules will not hesitate to take action.
Under our plan for change, our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system.
Record Number of Migrants in 2025
Authorities in the United Kingdom have intensified their efforts to better manage the migration situation.
The provisional statistics from the Home Office revealed that in the first four months of this year, the number of migrants reaching the UK through the English Channel marked a notable increase.
The statistics from the Home Office reveal that about 656 people reached the UK in 11 small boats over a mid-April weekend alone, taking the total number of people crossing the Channel in an irregular way to a total of 8,064.
The Home Office said that by mid-April, the figures were significantly higher than 7,567 registered in the first four months of 2024.